Pakistan army chief visits Kabul after school attack

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif visited Kabul Wednesday to meet with Afghanistan’s president for talks on enhancing intelligence cooperation a day after Taleban militants killed 141 people at a school in the country’s northwest.

Sharif, who was accompanied by the head of the Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, is set to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and ISAF commander General John Campbell, according to a brief statement by the military.

Some of the militants who attacked the army-run school in Peshawar Tuesday spoke in Arabic, a senior security official told AFP, which he said suggested that they had links over the border in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan routinely accuses Pakistan of providing shelter within its borders to the Afghan Taleban, while Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of protecting members of the Pakistani Taleban.

Mullah Fazlullah, the head of the Pakistani Taleban, is believed to be hiding in northeastern Afghanistan. “The army chief is likely to take Afghan leadership on board on this issue,” the security official said, adding that the handing Fazlullah over to Pakistan may figure at the talks in Kabul.

Analysts said the visit was intended to further cooperation against militants group along the countries’ shared border.

“The army chief is obviously interested that Tehreek-e-Taleban chief Maulana Fazlullah and his group is arrested and handed over to Pakistan or eliminated so that they do not use Afghan territory for launching attacks against Pakistan as happened in Peshawar on Tuesday,” retired general and security analyst Talat Masood told AFP.